Wesley Corpus

* How great is the honour God has conferred upon you, in making you a restorer of declining religion! And after struggling through so much opposition, and standing almost single, with what pleasure must you behold so many raised up, zealous in the same cause, though perhaps not ranked under the same name, nor openly connected with you! “Tam endeavouring, in my poor manner, to promote the same cause in this part of our guilty globe. My success is not equal to my wishes, but it vastly surpasses both my deserts and my expectation. I have baptized near a hundred and fifty adult negroes, of whom about sixty are communicants. Unpolished as they are, I find some ef them have the Feb. 1757. | REV. J. WESLEY’S JOURNAL 621 art to dissemble. But, blessed be God, the generality of them, as far as I can learn, are real Christians. And I have no doubt, but sundry of them are genuine children of Abraham. Among them, in the first place, and then among the poor white people, I have distributed the books you sent me. “I desire you to communicate this to your brother, as equally intended for him. And let me and my congregation, particularly my poor negro converts, be favoured with your prayers. In return for which, I hope neither you nor your cause will be forgotten by, Reverend sir, “ Your affectionate fellow labourer, and obliged servant, * Hanover, (in Virginia,) Samvuex Davies. Jan. 28, 1757.” Sun. 30.--Knowing God was able to strengthen me for his own work, 1 officiated at Snowsfields as usual, before | went to West-street, where the service took me up between four and five hours. I preached in the evening, and met the society; and my strength was as my day. I felt no more weariness at night, than at eight in the morning. Sun. February 6.--The number of communicants at Spitalfields, made this Lord’s day a little more laborious than the former. But God added proportionably to my strength; so I felt no difference.